On Friday 5th August anti-detention campaigners held a small, but noisy, protest at Colnbrook immigration prison, near Heathrow airport, where two migrant prisoners apparently killed themselves in less than a month. With a megaphone, whistles, a vuvuzela and pots and pans, they made themselves heard to the migrants locked up in Colnbrook, as well as in the adjacent Harmondsworth. Detainees shouted back 'freedom, freedom' and other angry, desperate slogans. See photos here.

On Saturday 30th July activists from Croydon, Brighton, London and elsewhere followed a call from Croydon NoBorders and gathered in Hayward Heath, Sussex, to protest against the opening of a new detention centre for migrants in nearby Pease Pottage.

Walking through the town, distributing leaflets the protesters drew people's attention to the direct impact of European immigration policy on families in the UK. They occupied a roundabout with banners and leafleted all incoming cars, played music and engaged in discussions with passers-by. The demo finished outside the Mid Sussex Council offices, where planning permission was granted for the detention centre in March.

A 25 year old male detainee being held in Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow died on Sunday morning, 31st July. The name/nationality of the man is unknown. FreeMovement have been in contact with detainees but they have been too distressed to speak coherently.

Meanwhile a 35 year old man was found hanged this morning, 2nd August, at Campfield detention centre near Oxford, reports The Guardian.

A new phone system run by a private company will replace personal mobile phones in immigration detention centres, Corporate Watch can reveal. The trial at Tinsley House detention centre, near Gatwick airport, is run by Global Comms & Consulting Ltd (GCC), which specialises in secure telecommunications services to major government agencies and multinational companies.

On 9th March, Barnardo's announced that it had agreed with the UKBA to provide staff and children's activities for the proposed new immigration prison for up to nine families at Pease Pottage, Crawley.

The children's charity Barnardo's is legitimising the continued use of detention for children by agreeing to provide welfare services at a "pre-departure accommodation" centre the government plans to open in Pease Pottage near Crawley in Sussex.